grow up
by loveinchaos
Summary: Nana must return to her home town when the father that forced her to becoma an Anima is dying. Actually pretty light drama.
1. Chapter 1

Nana was floating.

She glided on the gentle winds of a soft summer afternoon. The sun was setting to her right and the moon was already high into the sky. The last fingers of golden light faded as the sun set. Soon it was twilight, the witching hour. In all her escapades, she had never been more anxious…or certain.

Below her the lights of a town flickered to life, one by one. "Wow," she whispered to the wind and it carried her awed utterance up to the full moon. The town had grown large and prospered in her absence. Some things were unchanged though. A school with twisted ivy along one side still supported a stall for ice cream and a church steeple with a tower of bells still rose romantically to meet the sky. And as she floated over it the bells began to chime the same song; the lullaby of her youth had continued to play, even after her plight, to rock the new babes to sleep.

The town had grown but remained itself and so had Nana. She circled like a predatory bird before landing on a dim rooftop where she withdrew her wings and donned a pale pink poncho with large red flowers that Ms. Harden had made for her last fall. Her skin was lightly tanned from days spent working in the sun and her face though still childlike had lost some baby fat. She had grown tall, her height was emphasized by her form fitting knee-length travel dress and her hair rippled down to her hips like platinum gold streamers. She climbed down into a dim alley and as she stepped into the brightly lit streets and her olive eyes searched the streets for familiarity.

As she wandered uncertainly toward the town square younger boys stared at her with curiouse admiration and an even younger girl looked up from her scissor work to stare. She stared at the gliding 16 year old in surprised awe until she rounded the bend. Stowing her cloth away in the pocket of het cloak and stuck her scissors in her hair where it was pulled into a loose bun. Then she ran after Nana as fast as her toddler's legs could carry her.

Nana finally arrived at the town's hospital. Even though it was called a hospital it was still only big enough to really be a clinic. She took in a deep breath before entering the building then, bracing herself, she walks in.


	2. Chapter 2: Mom?

Nana finally arrived at the town's hospital. Even though it was called a hospital it was still only big enough to really be a clinic. She took in a deep breath before entering the building then, bracing herself, she walks in. there are only three people in the waiting room one of which was a nurse.

"Nana!"

Her throat suddenly got stuck with emotion but she managed a small "Hi mom"

Before tears started to well in her eyes and she was swept up in a hug. A hug made up of warmth, regret, longing, and desperate joy. She wrapped her arms around the frail older version of herself. And she breathed in the smell of sun and fresh baker's bread. O god how she had missed **this hug.**

The woman had grown older in her absence but she was still beautiful. Her eyes were heavy but caught the light the way Nana's did and reflected the same honey brown. She was somehow even thinner than Nana remembered from before and her cheekbones were very pronounced but she glowed with a health that had been so rare in Nana's memories. When they stood apart her mother laughed, "You're taller than me…and so soon."

"No mom. I think you shrank." For this her mother pinched her cheek with her calloused baker's hands and laughed her delight until it shook her platinum blonde braid over her shoulder to sling back and forth against her back. The sight is so nostalgic that the joy of the moment melted into sorrow for all the years of these moments lost, and so Nana cried. Which made her mom tear up and the two just held each other, crying.


	3. Chapter 3: well AWKWARD

Nana cried. Which made her mom tear up and the two just held each other a moment, crying.

"Dear, you're causing a scene." This was the third person in the waiting room: a meek looking man. He, in contrast to Nana and her mother, had stark pale skin like an animal that had tried to grow up in a cave. He put a hand on Nana's mother's shoulder with a restraining squeeze. His manner was kind though his face was not and he had the restless disposition of a pious man surrounded by other peoples beliefs but could not bring himself to argue. Nana grasped her mother as if she expected the pale man to forcefully take her away. She stared at him, warily. He wore unusually dusty cloths as if he had crawled out of a cobwebbed closet but besides that he wore the clothes of a conserved librarian. Seeing her wide eyed study of him he stepped back raising his hands in a placating manner as if trying to silently explain that above any traditions or conserved preferences he was a pacifist.

"You must be Mr. Noble." Nana relaxed her grip on her mother. Thought a moment. She reached out her hand in what she hoped was a professional manner to erase her initial defensiveness.

He took her hand, shaking it very softly with an equally soft smile. "I am. It is nice to finally meet you." It would have been polite to say it was nice to meet him too. But Nana didn't say that. She couldn't think of anything you **could** say to your mother's second husband.


	4. HIM

The Nurse tapped on the door before swinging it open. Nana followed her in to a room that's walls were a yellow of aged white while the furniture that was once brown had faded to dull beige.

The room felt like an old person's home, but the actual person made it feel like a crypt.

He made it smell like one too.

The curtains on the twin windows across from the bed were of lace so old that the sunlight that streamed in made the pattern of sun dried orange peels across her father's face.

He was awake and had been for hours but his face seemed to be in the permanent scowl of a hangover. His skin was the color to make the pale white side of the orange peel. But somehow he was still the young farmer and father of her youth. His young face and chin, which Nana had inherited instead of the sharp cheekbones of her mother, were still smooth and his head had yet to get a single grey hair.

Yet somehow he is dying… how is that possible? "Hey-um-Dad? …Sir?... God, you look terrible."

He winced at the noise, as if her speech hurt his ears, "You're so plucky. You sure this is my daughter?," he rolled himself onto one arm to ask the Nurse.

The nurse looked uncomfortable and stared at Nana pleadingly, "Never talked back, not the girl I raised."

Nana sighed and nodded to the squeamish nurse, "Sure I'm the girl you raised; I just got raised by somebody else afterwards." She sat at the foot of the bed and envied the fading footsteps of the retreating nurse. Her father exhaled a smelly "Oh." And his head plopped back down onto the pillow.

"Not that spineless book man I hope. You weren't hiding behind his maggot stuffed apron this whole time, were you?" he was talking about the third person in the waiting room,

"No, dad," she sighed, "If I can agree with you on anything it's that Mr. Noble is not my stepfather… not anything of the sort."

"well that's alright then."

Does he even care to know where I've been or is it all fine with him as long as I wasn't with mom and that Mr. noble? Does it matter? Should it matter? Do I want him to care? No. yes. That's not a bad thing. Its shameful. I should tell him. He wouldn't understand… I should say something. This is so pathetic. Don't fight with him. he's sick…

A silence. The nurse returned with food for Nana's father.

"I'll feed him. You can go ahead."

The nurse nodded gratefully and left. Father growled.

"That nurse doesn't like me."

She snorted as she scooped soup into his mouth. It was the sort of snort that said: of course.

Sharply but with his mouth a little full he managed to spit, "What do you mean by that?"

I mean, dad, that nobody likes you. Don't say it. He's dying. "She… she just doesn't know how to deal with you."

"Pfft. Can't deal? The problem with all the women around here. They can't deal with anything. Take your mother for example-"

_oh god, this will be a very long day_


End file.
